Download UDGS Foundation ( Activity Report: 2014

UDGS Foundation ( Activity Report: 2014-2017)
Activity Report ( 2014-16)
2016
Inside
 From the Promoters Desk
 About UDGS
 Our Projects
 Express and
Lead
 Unfold Yourself
 Our Upcoming
Projects
 UDGS in news
 Some Unforgettable Moments
The Humble Beginning
Initial Years for any Organization are the most crucial years. UDGS started in year 2014 with
few young enthusiasts is slowly but steadily building its strong foundation . This Activity report
presents the initial journey and progress of our Organization.
UDGS Foundation
Registered office : D-100A, Gali No-4 Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi-110092
Contact info: [email protected], [email protected] ; www.udgs.org
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UDGS Foundation
About UDGS
Started with a vision of contributing to the society in
our own way instead of contributing a donation to any
other NGO run programs.
UDGS was founded by few
young enthusiast who were
struggling themselves in the
initial years of their respective careers against the established notion that you
need experience to start
and build any Organization.
UDGS bring together professionals from different fields
who have joined hands to
Started in 2014, UDGS has
touched lives of thousands
of adolescents and still going strong through its project ‘Express and Lead’ and
has partnered with a leading
theatre group in Delhi to
come up with theatre shows
that are not only thought
provoking but also challenge
the conventional beliefs
under its project ‘Unfold
Yourself’
Express and lead
There is a leader in each and
every one of us, we may
realize it or not but each
and every one of us is making a difference in other
people lives in our own way.
We all are born with enormous talent and potential.
Whatever field we might be
in, we are born to lead, than
why is it that some people
excel and some people not,
why us it that some people
are not able to show up
their true worth. Is it because they lack capabilities
or urge to succeed or is it
because they themselves do
not realize their power.
A leader takes control of the
situation, stands tall in moments of crises, motivates
other, give others a purpose
to live and die for.
With this philosophy in
mind, UDGS members came
out with its ‘Express and
Lead’ project. More than a
project it’s a mission to
reach to the maximum people around, make them realize their true worth, make
them express themselves
Unfold Yourself
“Let there be no restrictions on anyone to express themselves, let there be opportunities
equal for all , let there be willingness to succeed and then the Life you are living will
become the most beautiful , the most precious gift of yours.”
The whole idea behind this project was to create opportunities, give everyone a chance to
come forward, express his feelings and unfold his hidden dreams and talents to the world
and bring a smile to every one around including one of the most important person in his
life , 'Himself'.
Thus , you have 'Unfold Yourself' in front of you , a project and a mission to try different
art forms where a person can express himself, fuse some creativity in his life and move
forward to a more fulfilling and happy life.
From the Promoters Desk
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There are times when you wish to contribute to the society , we all want to
work towards the betterment of the society but limit ourselves to just donating
a small sum to some organization working towards the cause we most care
about. The reasons may be many- job requirements, family pressures, unawareness to name a few.
The team behind UDGS foundation also faced the same limitations, we wished
to do more than donating but couldn't find a way.
Either we didn't feel connected with the ongoing projects of the NGOs or being
a part of the projects demanded too much that we could not afford to join
alongside our own Jobs/Business.
The noble thought of doing something for the society brought the team together and led to the formation of UDGS foundation in the year 2013 - a
platform where we are not bound by anything except our commitment to contribute a bit for our society.
Naveen Gupta
( Founder)
And hence you have UDGS foundation in front of you. An organization where
anyone with a zest of living not just for themselves but for others can come and
Join the Mission.
UDGS foundation have a wide span of working including, Promotion of art and
culture, Education, Productive aging , Working for differently able , Poverty
eradication , Rural development etc.
Team UDGS is committed to give its very best in whatever field it steps in and
the beginning has been made from changing the apathy, negativity and fear
which surrounds the sector of education, and arts through its specially designed
workshops, Seminars, performances under two of its current projects ‘Express
and lead’ and ‘Unfold Yourself’
Our Name
Mohnish Malhotra
( Founder)
In the iconic race between ‘The Rabbit’ and ‘The Tortoise’ , tortoise was with no
chance of winning was an underdog but he emerged out as the winner and one
strong reason behind his win was that he was considered as an ‘Underdog’ by
all.
Team UDGS believes there is an Underdog in each and every one of us. In one
situation we might be doing good but in some we might be back stepping . So,
we wanted the underdog in us to come out and perform and take the additional
advantage of being taken as an Underdog by others. So we found our name
which reflected its purpose, its mission :
Under- DoGS Foundation.
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Activity Report ( 2014-16)
Our History
It all started in the year 2012
when our founder Naveen
Gupta after qualifying his
finance degree and after
working with one of the top
consulting firms in the world
decided to pursue his passion for acting and theatre.
With no formal training and
any godfather he didn’t receive any response from the
established theatre groups
in Delhi so he decided to
produce his own show, he
consequently approached
many theatre directors active in Delhi .
During this period, he
thought to incorporate a
registered entity and then
produce theatre shows under this entity and then the
idea from just theatre widened to promotion of art
and culture, education ,
productive aging , working
for differently able , poverty
eradication , rural development etc.
So finally in 2014 with the
support of fellow friends
UDGS foundation was
formed as section-8 company under Companies Act of
India and its first project
‘Express and Lead’ was
launched to conduct personality and skill development
workshops with the underprivileged children.
tion is still in a learning stage and
that stage will never end. Along
with the support of its members
and partners,UDGS will continue
touching lives of many.
Soon after launching
We are in process of expanding
‘Express and lead’ , ‘Unfold
our scope, reach through more
yourself’ was also kick started and udgs foundation col- programs and redesigning the
existing programs and by bringing
laborated with one of the
together a like minded people
leading theatre group in
who wish to contribute for the
Delhi , ‘Collegiate Drama
Society(CDS) ’ to provide
development of all.
onstage, backstage and financial support in various
productions of CDS.
Still in initial years of its
operations, UDGS founda-
Our Projects
UDGS Foundation has wide span of working areas from promotion of art and culture, to education , productive aging ,
working for differently able , poverty eradication , rural development.
Currently we are working on two projects:
Our Express and Lead program through its workshops and seminars transform the personality and thinking skills of
children of all age group. It enables children to think beyond books, take a positive outlook towards life, motivate
themselves to follow their own path towards success. Along with life skills, the program also focus on advocacy on
social issues, health etc.
Thus with a dual goal of improving the life skills of the children and informing them about various social and ethical
issues prevalent in our society, the program has been successful in shaping the thinking skills and personalities of thousands of children so far.
The program has played pivot role in shaping the outlook of children towards life and has been able to sow seed of
positivity and self confidence amongst them. Feedbacks from the participants prove that the workshops under the program has been able to give them a new way of thinking and these feedbacks fuel us to try different thinks, make the
workshops more interesting and move forward.
Our Unfold yourself program was a step towards our contribution in promotion of the art and culture. Our program
provides a platform to raw talents in the field of arts may it be music, acting, stage designing, event organizing to
sharpen their skills by working with the experienced and the experts of the field, thus the program bridges the gap
between the experienced and fresh talent and bring them together to work on a project together and exchange their
knowledge and skills.
Theatre as an art form is generally looked as a medium entertainment but we look at the theatre in four ways:
1.
2.
3.
4.
as entertainment / art
as instrument of education
as weapon of social / political change
as a document of history -the plays and the theatrical events of various periods can be seen as historical documents reflecting that period.
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Express And Lead
( Project Overview)
Express And Lead: The Philosophy behind
Adolescence is as much a perplexing time of life as it is an amazing one. Running roughly between twelve and twenty four
( yes, into our mid twenties), adolescence is known across cultures as a time of great challenge for both adolescents and the
adults who support them ( parents, teachers, counselors etc)
This phase brings lots of changes in one’s life from physical to emotional, social and it is important to understand, support
and handle carefully each change a child is going through.
During these years, our minds change in the way we remember, think, observe, focus , pay attention, make decisions and
relate to others. In this phase there is a burst of growth and maturation taking place as never before in our lives. Understanding the nature of these changes can help us create a more productive life journey.
This phase is undoubtedly the 'make it or break it' phase for any one, If during this stage the child is handled, nurtured and
motivated properly he can do wonders in his/her life and for the society as a whole but on the other side this phase can also
lead the child in a direction not just detrimental for his own personal growth but also for the society.
Cases of adolescents getting involved in wrong habits like smoking, drinking, drugs etc. have been on increasing side over the
years and more alarming is the increasing trend of 'Juvenile Crimes ' is also a cause of concern.
Lot is being done for increasing the 'Literacy' level in our Country and the efforts of Government, Non Government Organisations , private players is worth appreciating that India as per the latest data has over 74 % literacy level.
But making our youth literate and making them ready for a brighter and meaning full life in future is a separate thing and
Our government has also realised this with including 'Soft Skills ' a mandatory part of the Curriculum.
A soft skills curriculum mainly built around following attributes:
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Know Yourself
SWOT Analysis
Creativity , Problem Solving and Decision making
Personality development
Communication Skills
Team Building
Attitude
Stress Management
Time Management
Confidence Building
Career Planning
Ethics and Manners
Presentation Skills
Interpersonal Skill Development
These attributes contribute largely in the development of the character of the adolescents and if these skills are imparted
properly and in an effective manner can prove to be a long term solution towards the rising problem of adolescents being
misguided for following wrong practices.
However, success of this initiative depends largely on the way the 'Soft skills training ' is being imparted to the children. An
effective implementation , quality programs and effective trainers is required to make this initiative a success and not to let it
become yet another subject as a part of curriculam.
Today, 1.2 billion adolescents stand at the crossroads between childhood and the adult world. Around 243 million of them
live in India. As they stand at these crossroads, so do societies at large – the crossroads between losing out on the potential
of a generation or nurturing them to transform society (unicef press release: http://unicef.in/PressReleases/87/AdolescenceAn-Age-of-Opportunity) .
This project is up against the increasing trend of our future generation being misguided towards wrong and mal practices .
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Activity Report ( 2014-16)
Target beneficiaries ( Whom we reach)
The target beneficiaries of ‘Express and Lead’ are the ‘Adolescents’.
The Value Proposition ( What we wish to contribute)
The project will make the youth , the adolescents meet their
true potential and find their ultimate growth path.
Express and Lead focuses on development of thought
process of young minds.
How the Project Works
To understand the issues,
thinking and mindset of
‘Adolescents’ , you have to
think like them and most
appropriately you have to
take your life into flashback
and relive your ‘Adolescent’
age.
A child during his adolescent
age is on a very crucial stage
of his life, a proper guidance ,
motivation, skill transfer can
either make or break his life
and at this age apart from
‘parents’ the person who
holds and contribute the
most is his ‘Teacher’.
So under express and lead,
udgs chose to work on all the
three important contributors
in a child’s growth and development :
A. ‘The Child himself’
B.
C.
through our direct workshops, training and seminars
‘The Teacher’ through
our teacher training programs
‘The Parents’ through
our parents advocacy
and intervention programs.
We reach our target beneficiaries through one of the
following ways:
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Collaborations with
Government and Private ' Schools and Educational Institutions'
Collaborations with
the 'NGO run Schools/
institutions
Collaborations with
the 'Rehabilitation Centres' for youth
parts of the
country and
to reach the
unreached.
Since its launch, udgs under ‘Express and Lead’ has
touched lives of more than
2500 children and teach
ers through our workshops,
seminars and We have a
target to reach at least
10,000 adolescents and
teachers by 2017 and to
India has over 15 lakh
schools ( as per data com- increase it to 50,000 by
piled by Planning Commis- 2020. The progress so far
has been positive and with
sion of India,2011) and
over 700 Universities and growing experience with
more than 35000 affiliated each passing workshop/
colleges enrolling more
training/seminar we are
than 20 million students in confident to surpass our
higher education itself
target of touching 50,000
( source: UGC). We are
lives way before 2020.
striving hard to increase
our reach across different
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Activity Report ( 2014-16)
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How do we design our workshops under Express and lead
It is said that 'If you are right, it doesn't mean that the other person is wrong'.
Similarly if you have a opinion on a problem and you know your opinion is right it does not mean that the person on
the other side of the table will also feel the same way because he has his own thoughts and opinion on the same subject and even though he is on the wrong side he will accept your thoughts until he is convinced himself.
The situation is true with people of all age groups not just with adolescents and in fact the situation is more critical with
them considering the state of mind a child is in this stage which means no matter how you tell a adolescent if he is not
convinced on a particular subject he will not accept it and he ay not even tell you that.
This is where our current education system and methodology in our opinion fails to address the problems associates
with the adolescence. Off late we have been following a direct methodology to guide and teach our children which
worked well in the past considering the limited access the child had to evaluate, re evaluate what has been taught to
him due to resource constrains but in the present era of information boom a child has access to this vast information
right on his palm.
Today, a child will not accept a particular opinion /thought of his parents/teachers just because they feel that way, he
will analyse, look around , search the web and only when he is convinced fully then only he will accept else the possibility of him choosing and following the other path is more likely to happen.
Lets say for instance, we say 'Smoking and drinking is injurious to health' and we instruct a child to stay away from these
but the child see his favourite movie star smoking and drinking in a movie or opinions of many others who doesn’t feel
this way on internet, he may ignore all warnings and may test to check if it affects him or not and from then the situation can grow worse.
So, it is important to first understand how and what the adolescents think and if we can understand their thought process and the direction in which they are thinking, we can effectively communicate our message or thoughts by using
proper techniques and methodology.
In other words, instead of following just the 'Direct method' for teaching if we can follow the 'Indirect route' and make
the child realise himself/herself about the consequences of such issues , the chances of the long term impact of the
teaching on the child is higher.
Under 'Express and Lead' we design our workshops using the 'Indirect Method', with activities like:
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Group Discussions
Role Plays
Theatre Impromptu
Debates
Ethical reasoning'
Story building and telling
Creative problem solving
We work on the thought process of the children and cover issues that matters.
Another important consideration in our workshops is we work on the soft skills of the children, so all workshops are
designed keeping following two considerations in mind:
1. Cover issues that are important for the self growth and a contribute to a good character development of the child.
2. Work on the soft skills of the children
Activity Report ( 2014-16)
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Our Journey So far….
Its been 2 years ( and counting ..) for our project 'Express and lead' and these two years were filled with some great learning experience and interactions with our target beneficiaries.
We begun our journey with a private school ' Lancer's Convent' in Delhi in the month of October'2014 wherein we interacted with students from Class VI to Class XII in over three batches and this collaboration laid the foundation stone for our
subsequent collaborations and work and we extended our collaborations with several private schools, government
schools, NGOs run schools, Child homes , educational institutions since then.
As on December,2016 we have interacted with over 2500 students and teachers through our workshops , seminars, sessions in different parts of the country and our major collaborations where we have conducted our workshops/seminars
include:
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Lancers Convent Public School, Delhi
Don Bosco Ashalayam, Delhi
Deepalaya's Child home , Haryana
Jamghat, Delhi
Ashakiran, Haryana
YWCA, Delhi
Vidyasthal, Delhi
I-Tecs, Madhya pradesh
We have a target to reach at least 10,000 adolescents and teachers by 2017 and to increase it to 40,000 by 2020. The
progress so far has been positive and with growing experience with each passing workshop/ training/seminar we are
confident to surpass our target of touching 50,000 lives way before 2020.
Some of the memories from our workshops have been given below:
Activity Report ( 2014
Feedback that matters ( Students)...
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Activity Report ( 2014
Feedback that matters( Students)...
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Activity Report ( 2014
Feedback that matters ( teachers )...
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Activity Report ( 2014
Feedback that matters ( teachers )...
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Memories for life….
Activity Report ( 2014
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Some memories from our workshops conducted at Deepalaya’s Gusbethi’s Home for Children. Our members have
been conducting workshops here on continuous basis and received lot of love and appreciation from the participants.
Memories for life….
Activity Report ( 2014
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Some memories from our workshops conducted at Don Bosco Ashalayam, Dwarka, Delhi for Children. Our members have been conducting workshops here on continuous basis and received lot of love and appreciation from the
participants.
Memories for life….
Activity Report ( 2014
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Some memories from our workshops conducted at Government School. Co-ed, Delhi for Students of class X. The
workshop was well received by participants and we received some great feedback from the students.
Memories for life….
Activity Report ( 2014
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Some memories from our workshops conducted at YWCA, Delhi for children . The workshop was a great learning
experience both for the participants and our members.
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COPE
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Career cOunselling and Personality Enhancement Programme
Background:
India with the population of 1.2 billion, 17.5 per cent of the global population as on March 2011 2 has a potential
"demographic dividend"; its millions of young people could be some of the major global consumers of the coming decades
but only if they get the right education and work. However the fact is that 30 lakh graduate’s join the Indian job market every year of which only around 5 lakh are considered employable. Few of the sectors which are facing acute manpower shortage are IT, BFSI, pharma, healthcare, infrastructure, retail, auto and consumer durables. By 2025, India’s demographic dividend is expected to raise upto 25% of global workforce. This reflects the magnitude and significance of the skill Gap challenge that India is facing. 4
India has 40% of population below 25 years, of which only 5% of total workforce is skilled, in comparison to 85% in South
East Asian Countries. Of 500 million (approx.) workforces in India, only 9% is engaged in the organized sector and only 5%
have marketable skills. It is predicted that the largest share of new jobs would come from the unorganized sector, which
also accounts for most of national workforce. The National Sample Survey reports states that only about 2% have received
formal vocational training and 8% received non-formal vocational training. (CII and City and Guilds Summit).
In order to make the growth inclusive and opportunity provider for majority of India’s young people, skill gaps in informal
sector needs to be closed with utmost efficacy by addressing these gaps. The Indian Confederation of Industries (CII) is conducting analysis of skill needs in various high growth sectors and already has completed a number of studies which confirm
that skills gaps in employability, soft, technical, and English language skills are extensive and are found at all levels of enterprises – from entry level to professional and upper levels and with all levels of education –basic through university. This finding is echoed by World Economic Forum’s Global Talent Mobility report.
Thus, the major skill gaps are uneven manpower distribution across the employment sectors and poor employability/ soft
skills amongst youths. The latent reason behind this skill gap is lack of awareness about employment industries leading to
incongruent aspiration mapping and absence of soft skills training which pre requisite for sustaining in any job are.
In order to address this issue, Besides soft/ employability skills training the other vital thing is to introduce education and
career counseling as a significant part in adolescent engagement programs since the same goes hand in hand for right career
choice.
About UDGS career counseling & personality enhancement model * COPE + : To contribute its bit in filling the existing skill
gap in country’s economy, UDGS proposes counseling and personality enhancement model (Henceforth referred as COPE)
for adolescents and youths. This program model will addressing the major concerns related to skill gaps in India, viz; Counseling for informed decision making and soft / employability skills training. The objectives of proposed model are as follows;
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To provide opportunities to the youths for taking informed decision about their career.
To provide soft/ employability skills training to the youths for their personality enhancement.
The program would envisage holistic learning and personality grooming of the community youths by providing information
about market employability potentials against their aspiration and skill set. This helps in selecting best suitable education
stream/vocational training program through planned counseling sessions. Besides opting for suitable education stream/
vocational training program, the youths get soft skill sessions with the intent of preparing them for gainful and sustainable
livelihood opportunities.
Unfold Yourself: Part-II
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Unfold Yourself: Part-II
Census 2011 data revealed that 2.21 percent of the population in India is suffering from one or the other kind of disability
and it talks about eight types of disability. To look a decade ago, census 2001 has shown that 2.1% of the population in our
country is affected by one of other disability and it mentioned about five types of disability. The population of persons with
disabilities increasing day by day due to various factors and in most of the cases, disability is caused by road accident. For
Looking at the unfriendly nature and infrastructure in the country and the perception of the society towards the PWDs
make their life more miserable and difficult. Every one or other day, there are reports of discrimination towards the disabled people in their day to day life.
The first ever world report on disability, published jointly by WHO and the World Bank, which suggests that more than a
billion people in the world today experiment disability. People with disabilities have generally poorer heath, lower education achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities and one of
the major factors is non-availability of equal opportunities.
The report calls on governments to review and revise existing legislation and policies for consistency with the Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and to develop national disability strategies and action plans. WHO had
also come up with its action for the 2014-2021 which envisage to have more just and equal society.
The objectives of the WHO global disability action plan 2014-2021 are:
 supporting the awareness and implementation of CRPD;
 mainstreaming the rights of people with disabilities in the work of WHO;
 Promoting the inclusion of disability and rehabilitation as a component in national health policies and programmes
From last few years we have been working on one aspect of 'Unfold Yourself' now taking it to the next level, we are taking it to the next level:
Unfold yourself, means to open, spread out and rediscover you. The statement itself communicates the core idea of the
project. So the main agenda of this project is to providing space people to express their life journey using theatre as a medium.
Theatre is the one of the best available medium to express the powerful message to a larger audience, so the focus part of
the project is an Inclusive Group working together in the theatre to express themselves and to show the real picture of the
current situation in the society and how it affects the life of a human being mentally or emotionally. The inclusive theatre
group actually believe that everyone have certain strength and capabilities which can be harness by giving proper guidance
and space, theatre forum is the space where people can explore their talent as a team and also perform to bring awareness
in the society about various issues matters to the society.
I have had the opportunity to work and observe closely the journey of people with disabilities and their families to get the
practical perspective and to understand their life style and experiences they go through, on the other hand as part of academics, I did my research on the Experience of Inclusive Education and how people/s struggle in making their own identity.
One of the major outcomes of my research was people’s attitude toward PWDs; people want to work with PWDs not to
explore their potential but to help them to live their life. Another outcome, general perception in the society is that PWDs
are and cannot perform particular task and usually they considered as undeserving section of the lot. So, the need to work
towards improving or changing the attitude of the public using theatre as a medium and also to communicate underlying
idea that disabled people can also perform task if given proper guidance and opportunities. Hence, Inclusive forum will be
right platform to bring people together and make them showcase their talent
That’s why the model is designed in such a way where we can cater people from any age group and to provide space where
they can think, rethink and discover their self and to provide them opportunity to empower themselves. The plan is to create awareness and promoting art and inclusive society using theatre as the medium of communication.
Objectives of the project:
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Creating an inclusive structure where people with disability and non – disabled people can work together
Creating social awareness and to promote art and culture in the society
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UDGS Foundation
Registered office : D-100A, Gali No-4 Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi-110092
Contact info: [email protected], [email protected] ; www.udgs.org;
91 9811964594